Compulsory Routers: what customers have to take care of now

Pubblicato il: 2016-07-25

Up until now, Internet service providers (ISPs) in
Germany determined the router users had to use to connect to the
Internet. The user had no say in this decision. This changes on August
1. A new law will allow users choose the device that gets installed in
their homes. The FSFE wants to ensure everybody knows about their new
rights and is asking users to report cases in which ISPs try to avoid
the new regulation.

"Compulsory Routers" are what we call the devices imposed on users,
forbidding them from using any other appliance to access the Internet.
Compulsory routers are often the subject of critical security flaws
which users can't legally or technically fix themselves. They are also
known to be incompatible with certain network devices and standards,
like IPv6, or to support only a small number of important features.

However, the legal situation was ambiguous and ISPs defined the
first router or modem after the wall socket as part of their network.
They could thus bar users from controlling the technology installed
within their own homes, despite the fact that the users were even
paying for the electricity that run the devices.

The Free Software Foundation Europe took up the fight to outlaw
Compulsory Routers in 2013, and we have finally won a major landmark
victory: from August 1 onwards, clients of German internet
providers are allowed by law to use any terminal device they choose.
Regardless of whether it is a DSL or cable connection, the ISP will
have to supply the information you need to connect an alternative
router to use the Internet and telephone network.

Help us track the implementation

The law is very clear with regard to your new rights, but, based on
past behaviours of ISPs, the FSFE must assume many providers will
ignore the regulation and will continue to try and force their clients
to use their default router.

ISPs will probably make the argument that the law only applies to
new customers, or that a connection to the Internet with alternative
devices will be unstable, or denying support to clients with devices
other than the ones they provide.

We want to make sure that these misbehaviours are made public and we
need your help for that. If you are a client of a German internet
provider, we ask you exercise your new right and start using an
alternative device, ideally one that runs Free Software.

Once your new device is up and running, we need you to provide us
with feedback on whether you had any issues while running your new
router. We will collect this data and confront providers that are not
in compliance with the new law. We have also created a wiki
page where we report information, testing procedures, results, and
user experiences.